A Second Too Late
by Elenar Thorn
Summary: A quick 'what if' story if Ty Lee had not intervened at the Boiling Rock. Rated T for character death. Please R&R.


Ty Lee's eyes frantically shifted from Azula to Mai. She had to hold her hands together to steady the trembling.

"You miscalculated; I love Zuko, more than I fear you." Mai's voice was strong and unwavering unlike the terrified squeak Ty Lee let out. She hoped no one heard.

Azula's calm mask gave way to the fury she so long kept at bay, "No _you _miscalculated, you should have feared me more!"

Ty Lee froze as she saw her two best friends drop into fighting stances. Mai's blade flashed dangerously as she made ready to strike. Azula set into an all too familiar stance, posing herself to deliver the killing blow.

And before Ty Lee had time to think of a way to intervene, they attacked. A sharp whistling sound followed Mai's knife as it found itself imbedded firmly into the princess' neck, but not before a blinding streak of lightning struck Mai square in the chest.

"NO!" But Ty Lee's cry came a second too late, both her friends were down…possibly dead.

Azula, the Conquer of Ba Sing Se, the princess who stood so tall and domineering now laid face down on the landing in a growing pile of her own blood. Mai, the quiet governor's daughter, the girl who never spoke out, the traitor to the royal family lay sprawled on her back. Her chest was black and smoking; the charred cloth couldn't be dissiefered from the blackened flesh.

"No…" Ty Lee breathed, not noticing the tears that were pouring down her cheeks. Her friends, her two _best _friends had killed each other. The two people she held closest in her heart since childhood were dead.

The prison guards began to run to the scene, but Ty Lee didn't care. How could she care? Her heart was breaking and there was no ne to laugh at her expense, or to tell her that she was being over dramatic.

"Zuk-" A voice groaned.

Ty Lee snapped her head up at the sound. It was Mai. A soldier started toward the fallen noble girl, a flame in his hand to strike down the traitor. "Don't touch her!" Ty Lee shouted and pushed by him before he could finish what Azula started.

"Mai," Ty Lee choked as she kneeled by her side. "Mai, I'm here. Hold on." But Mai didn't hear her; she seemed to be somewhere far away from this disaster.

"Zuko." Mai whispered. Her glazed eyes stopped searching. Mai was dead.

"No Mai!" Ty Lee shouted as she began to try and shake the corpse awake. Sobs wracked her small body. This couldn't be happening!

Then something told Ty Lee to look up. It wasn't a voice or sign, just a feeling. And what she saw caused her broken heart to fracture into splinters: guards scrambled around the fallen princess, but Ty Lee could still see the bloodied girl. She was alive, if only for the moment, her eyes were pained as they met Ty Lee's. Then Azula moved her stained claw toward the acrobat, reaching for her.

"Azula," Ty Lee whimpered.

The guards looked back at the acrobat; some made a space expecting her to come. But should Ty Lee come? Should she go to the girl who murdered her best friend? Should she be there, holding the corpse of the girl who was killing her best friend? Ty Lee wiped her eyes and stood. Reluctant as she was to leave Mai's side, Ty Lee strode on shaky legs to the mass of crimson on the other side of the landing.

No one stopped her when she came to Azula's side and took a taloned hand into her own. The wet sticky feeling between her fingers made her want to gag. Azula's pale porcelain face was now ghostly white making the dark blood spattered on her cheeks look almost black. But what Ty Lee was most taken aback by were her eyes. Her once sharp golden eyes that could look through her very soul were pleading, _pleading,_ to Ty Lee. Maybe to make the pain stop, maybe to turn back time, maybe even to bring Mai back from the dead.

Ty Lee couldn't help sobbing uncontrollably over the dying princess' form. She wanted so much to yank out the knife that cut so cleanly, so deeply into Azula's throat but the thought of the waterfall of blood that would come after stilled her hand. Instead she brushed a soaked strand of ebony hair from the princess' face, _Azula always liked her hair tighty._

"Please don't leave me too, Azula. Please." Ty Lee' tears cascaded down to the princess' cheeks as rain washes away the filth after battle.

Azula tried to speak. She really tried. But she only gurgled and gaped as a thick stream of blood fell from her mouth.

"Shh, don't talk Azula." Ty Lee whispered cradling the princess' cheek, not caring that her hand was becoming soaked in her friend's divine blood.

Azula's chest began to heave as her eyes became panicked.

"No, no. Please no." Ty Lee tried to stop the convulsing Azula's body began, still holding her hand for dear life. "Agni please don't leave me."

Azula, instead of gasping for breath, was still trying to speak. More and more blood gushed out until she finally uttered, "Ty…"

And then she was still.

Mai was dead.

Azula was dead.

And a piece of Ty lee died with them.


End file.
